High court will hear Stan Pate's appeal

TUSCALOOSA | The Alabama Supreme Court has agreed to hear local developer Stan Pate’s appeal of a misdemeanor menacing conviction that stems from a 2009 argument in which he pulled a shotgun.

By Jason MortonStaff Writer

TUSCALOOSA | The Alabama Supreme Court has agreed to hear local developer Stan Pate’s appeal of a misdemeanor menacing conviction that stems from a 2009 argument in which he pulled a shotgun.According to the order granting Pate’s appeal, the high court will review lower court rulings in his case as they relate to gun and property rights.“I believe in standing your ground, and I believe in private property (owners’) rights,” Pate said Wednesday, shortly after the decision. “And I believe that you, first, must defend your property.“You can’t depend on others.”Pate was arrested on the misdemeanor menacing charge a week after a Sept. 30, 2009, dispute between him and the general manager of the Santa Fe Cattle Co. restaurant, which had permanently closed a few days earlier. The restaurant near the intersection of Skyland Boulevard and Alabama Highway 69 had operated in a building and on land owned by Pate’s development company, but shut down as part of the restaurant chain’s bankruptcy restructuring.The dispute was over what items the restaurant’s owners were allowed to remove from the premises. At the time, Pate said that about $500,000 worth of property was removed from the building and that the business owners owed him more than $4 million in rent.Pate contends that the property — including booths, stoves and industrial sinks — belonged to him pending payment of that debt. During the argument, Pate grabbed a 12-gauge shotgun from his vehicle while ordering Brian Hart, the restaurant’s general manager, to get off his property. Police officers summoned to the restaurant decided Pate had not acted illegally, but Hart pressed charges and Pate was arrested on Oct. 6, 2009.He was convicted of misdemeanor menacing in Tuscaloosa Municipal Court in February 2010.According to testimony in municipal court, Pate pointed the shotgun at Hart, but testimony and video evidence presented during his appeal in Tuscaloosa County Circuit Court showed that Pate held the weapon but did not point it.Circuit Court Judge John England upheld the conviction, however, ruling in December 2010 after a bench trial that the act of obtaining the weapon from his vehicle was enough to constitute misdemeanor menacing. England sentenced Pate to 60 days in jail and a fine of $250, but he suspended the jail time and placed Pate on probation for one year.Pate appealed to the Court of Criminal Appeals, which in June upheld England’s decision. Pate then appealed to the state Supreme Court.Pate’s attorney, Joel Sogol of Tuscaloosa, wrote in his petition to the high court that the rulings by the lower courts ignored established law.“In the present case, Pate was on his own property when he walked to his truck to obtain his shotgun, and there was no suggestion that the shotgun was not lawfully in Pate’s possession,” Sogol wrote. “The trespasser, who got in his car to leave once Pate began walking toward his own truck, testified that Pate did not make any threats toward him after getting the gun.”Pate now has 14 days to submit a legal brief to the Supreme Court pleading his case. The city then will have 14 days to respond.City Attorney Tim Nunnally declined to comment on the pending litigation, except to say that Assistant City Attorney Kristen Lee Love will represent the city before the Supreme Court. Pate said the appeal isn’t just about having his conviction overturned but is also about the constitutional right of Americans to defend and protect their property.“The very issues of gun owners’ rights and property owners’ rights seem to get lost in the courtroom,” Pate said. “At the end of the day, this is not about the personalities or the people involved, it’s about the law and the rights afforded you under the law.”